TURN OFF

SHAMALL is the project of German Norbert Krueler who is an influential DJ in his native land. We have a guest female vocalist helping out along with a drummer and guitarist. The music reminds me of the "Wish You Were Here" era of PINK FLOYD, in fact Norbert describes his music as being "German PINK FLOYD with own influences". There are lots of electronics at times bringing TANGERINE DREAM to mind as well, and i'd also mention AYREON with all the bombast. That bombast is often contrasted with the melancholic spacey sections.

SHAMALL has been around since the eighties and this particular album is a double disc with almost 2 1/2 hours of music, and yes it's a concept album and it's about the enviroment. And as i've said many times i'm not into concept albums usually or very long recordings like this. A lot of these tracks blend into each other and I also want to mention that to my ears the drums were a machine until I looked it up and saw there was an actual drummer, not a fan of his playing at all, especially the dance-like beats we get at times.

My favourite tracks are the two on the second disc, namely "The Creeping Dead" and "Clouds Obscure The Sun". The former is heavy and bass driven, and I must say if there's one thing I really like about this album it's the very upfront bass. "Turn Off Pt.I" reminds me more of "The Division Bell" especially the vocals. We get a sampled conversation on "Horrible Nightmare" which is different and on disc one's "The Devil Never Sleeps" I like the sound of blowing wind and the electronics that come and go. We also get some piano and sax on this recording at times.

I just can't get into this one at all but if you like latter day FLOYD and electronics with the bombast of AYREON you should check this project out.